1. Field
The subject pad is in the field of apparatus used for protecting horses' hooves and reducing the chances of horses being harmed or injured because of shocks experienced as hooves contact terrain. More specifically it is in the field of pads and other resilient devices used with or incorporated into horseshoes.
2. Prior Art
There is much prior art in this field, both patented and not patented. The patents listed below are a sampling of the patented prior art.
______________________________________ U.S. Pat. No.: 28,656 641,210 1,543,672 188,620 710,999 2,103,718 206,939 718,392 4,565,250 514,934 806,182 4,645,008 602,046 971,138 4,765,412 619,745 979,365 4,823,883 449,368 French: 686,943 ______________________________________
Much of the unpatented prior art relates to various kinds of pads which are used between a horseshoe and a hoof with the shoe and pad fastened to the hoof with conventional horseshoe nails and techniques. Some of the pads are made of felt material, some are made of elastomeric material, flat and foamed, flat and solid and all resilient to some degree.
It is well known in the art that the effectiveness of a pad in relieving shock increases with the amount the pad deflects in compression under the load transmitted by the shoe, through the pad to the hoof. It is also well known that elastomeric material in sheet form is not readily compressible. One significant result of this fact is that in order to make a horseshoe pad from elastomeric sheet and have it deflect enough in compression to provide significant shock relief, i.e. enough to warrant providing the pad, the material must be so soft that it is not durable enough to meet other significant use requirements. Such soft material tends to extrude from between the shoe and hoof and tear away from the nails. Attempts have been made to limit such extrusion and tearing by laminating one or more layers of fabric in the pad. However, the presence of the fabric interferes with the compressibility of the material. A pad with a stabilizing fabric layer is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,565,250. This difficulty in providing pads made of material soft enough to provide significant shock relief and durable enough to withstand use has contributed significantly to the failure to meet the longstanding need for a horseshoe pad which provides significant shock relief.
Accordingly, a prime objective of the subject invention is to provide a horseshoe pad which allows greater deflection than prior art pads relative to pad thickness and the applied loads and is durable enough to meet all use conditions for extended periods of use. Other objectives are that a pad meeting the prime objective be useable with conventional horseshoe attaching fasteners and techniques and also be simple and available at cost which clearly warrants use of the pad.